|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| Kresge Foundation Names Marcus Belgrave It's 2009 Eminent Artist Master jazz trumpet player Marcus Belgrave - who has enthralled audiences world-wide with his musical virtuosity and mentored scores of aspiring young musicians - has been named the 2009 Kresge Eminent Artist by The Kresge Foundation. The award and $50, 000 prize recognizes Belgrave's lifelong musical achievements and his personal and professional contributions to music performance and education in Metropolitan Detroit. The foundation, through its Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative, annually supports the Kresge Eminent Artist Award, Kresge Artist Fellowships, and Kresge Arts Support grants. The Eminent Artist Award is administered by the College for Creative Studies. Reflecting on his decades-long career, the 73-year-old Belgrave says, "I was designed to be a musician. It gave me a good personality, because I was always around people who made you humble. Music also gave me much character. And I was able to open many doors through music." His selection as this year's Kresge Eminent Artist is "the ultimate appreciation, " he continues. "The award is a culmination of a period of my life and shows me that the work I've been doing has been appreciated. Most of the young people I've touched are now quite famous. I told them the same thing my father told me: Music will take you places you could never imagine. And that has happened." Inspired at a young age by Louis Armstrong, Belgrave grew up in a poor, but musically talented, family living in the steel-mill town of Chester, Pennsylvania. He cut his teeth on the jazz circuit touring with Ray Charles in the late 1950s, and embraced the Motown sound when he moved to Detroit in 1963 to begin recording with Berry Gordy Jr., founder of Motown Records, at the Hitsville U.S.A. recording studio on West Grand Boulevard. Over the years, Belgrave has played with the top names in jazz and many legendary entertainers, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and Aretha Franklin. In the mid-70s, Belgrave established the Jazz Development Workshop in Detroit and began working with youngsters to develop their musical talent. A dedicated educator and mentor, he has taught jazz classes and lessons at elementary, middle, and high schools in the city and at a dozen colleges nationwide. He also serves as an international jazz ambassador, traveling all over the world to share the music he loves. In 1997, for example, he and five other Michigan jazz masters made a six-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East, funded as a cultural exchange effort by the U.S. Agency for International Development, a federal agency providing economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |